Casing with boss for eliminating sharp device

ABSTRACT

In a casing body of an audio device that includes a main body and a front surface panel formed to protrude outside from an upper surface and side surfaces of the main body and has having a sharp edge formed at the corner part of the rear end face of the front surface panel, a small boss is formed inside the sharp edge. When a finger touches the sharp edge, a force concentrated on a point of the sharp edge is dispersed to two points of the sharp edge and the boss due to the action of the boss. Accordingly, even when the user&#39;s finger touches the sharp edge, a fear that the finger is injured is decreased. Since the boss is provided inside the sharp edge, an external appearance employing the sharp edge can be maintained in view of its design.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a casing body having a boss forcanceling a sharp edge in which the boss (a protrusion) is provided inthe vicinity of the sharp edge so as to be safely used withoutdeteriorating an external appearance in the casing body that needs tohave the sharp edge in an outer casing part in view of its design.

BACKGROUND ART

Ordinarily, a casing body is formed so that a sharp edge cannot beformed in an outer casing part so as to be safely used. However, somecasing members may have sharp edges in view of their structures. As acountermeasure to the sharp edge generated in the outer casing part, amethod that the sharp edge is hidden by other parts not to touch it, amethod that an inclination angle of a corner is increased not to formthe sharp edge of an acute angle, or a method that a protruding rib isprovided in an inner casing body so as to be flush with the sharp edgeof an outer casing body (for instance, refer to Japanese PatentApplication Laid-Open No. hei 6-300281 has been mainly employed.

However, the methods for meeting the sharp edge generated in theconventional casing member does not take the external appearance of thesharp edge into consideration. Thus, the above methods cannot be appliedto the casing body having a structure that needs to provide the sharpedge on the outer casing part that a user can easily touch in view ofits design.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is devised by considering the above-describedproblems and it is an object of the present invention to provide acasing body having a boss for canceling a sharp edge that can avoid arisk due to the sharp edge of the casing body formed so as tonecessarily provide the sharp edge in an outer casing member that a usercan easily touch in view of its design without deteriorating the design.

A casing body having a boss for canceling a sharp edge according to thepresent invention, in a casing that has the sharp edge in a part withwhich a hand can easily come into contact in view of its design, whereina small boss is provided that allows a force concentrated on one pointof the sharp edge to escape in the vicinity of the sharp edge.

The casing body according to the present invention is a casing body ofan audio device including a main body and a front surface panel havingsteps in outer sides from an upper surface and side surfaces of the mainbody, and having the sharp edge formed on a corner part of a rear endface of the front surface panel.

According to the present invention, in the casing body having the sharpedge in a part with which the hand can easily come into contact in viewof its design in structure, the small boss that allows the forceconcentrated on one point of the sharp edge to escape is provided nearthe sharp edge. Accordingly, even when a user touches the sharp edge, arisk that the user is injured is greatly reduced. Since the boss isprovided in the vicinity of the sharp edge so as not to be marked, theexternal appearance as the sharp edge can be maintained in its design.Further, the boss can be formed only by providing a recessed hole in ametal mold of the casing body, so that it is advantageous in view ofcost.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing main parts of a casing bodyaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1B is an enlarged view of a part A in FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 is a rear face view of a front surface panel.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the front surface panel.

FIG. 4A is an enlarged front view of a sharp edge part on the upper partof the front surface panel.

FIG. 4B is an enlarged side view of the sharp edge part on the upperpart of the front surface panel.

FIG. 5A is an enlarged front view of the sharp edge part on the lowerpart of the front surface panel.

FIG. 5B is an enlarged side view of the sharp edge part on the lowerpart of the front surface panel.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of an operation of a boss of the sharpedge part.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention will be described by referring tothe drawings. In FIG. 1, a sharp edge forming part of a casing body ofan audio device (a mini component) having a sharp edge according to thepresent invention is shown in view of its design. In FIGS. 2 and 3, adetail of a rear surface and a side surface of a front surface panel ofthe casing body is shown. The casing body 1 includes a rear cabinet(main body) 2 formed by the press work of a metal plate and a frontsurface panel 3 formed by a resin mold, as shown in FIG. 1. For thepurpose of design, rear ends of an upper surface 32 and side surfaces 33of the front surface panel 3 protrude outside an upper surface 21 andside surfaces 22 of the main body 2 so that a step D of 1.2 mm is formedbetween the front surface panel 3 and the main body 2.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the front surface panel 3 include apanel part 31, an upper wall 32, side walls 33 and a bottom wall 34. Inthe rear end side of the upper wall 32, engaging pieces 35 a to 35 d areprovided that engage with the inside of the upper wall 21 of the mainbody 2. Further, in the rear end sides of the right and left side walls33, engaging pieces 36 a to 36 c are provided that engage with theinside parts of the side walls 22 of the main body 2. R of corner parts36 and 37 in the upper and lower parts of the side walls 33 of the frontsurface panel 3 and R of the rear end edges 32 a, 33 a and 34 a of theupper wall 32, the side walls 33 and the bottom wall 34 of the frontsurface panel 3 are formed substantially to 0 in view of design.

In an upper part 51 of the panel part 31 of the front surface panel 3, atape record mechanism attaching part 32, a cassette holder attachingpart 53 and holes 54 a to 54 c for tape operating buttons for ejecting,playing, stopping, pausing, recording a tape, etc. are provided. In anintermediate part 61 located in the lower part thereof, a hole 62 for apower button, a hole 63 for an IR operating button, a hole 64 for bandswitching button, holes 65 a to 65 e for a mode selecting button,function selecting buttons, etc., a hole 66 for a tuning button, a hole67 for a sound volume adjusting button, and holes 68 a and 68 b forlow-pitched and high-pitched tone adjusting buttons are provided. In alower part 71 of the panel part 31, a CD take in and out port 72, holes73 a to 73 c for CD operating buttons for playing, pausing, stopping andejecting a CD, an earphone jack attaching hole 74, etc. are provided.

As described above, in the casing body 1, for the purpose of design, thestep of 1.2 mm is formed between the front surface panel 3 and the mainbody 2. R of the corner parts 36 and 37 of the front surface panel 3 andR of the rear end edges 32 a, 33 a and 34 a of the front surface panel 3are formed substantially to 0. Thus, the end of a rear end corner part41 on an upper side formed by the rear end of the upper wall 32 and therear end of the side wall 33 of the front surface panel 3 forms a sharpedge 43 in view of design. Further, an end of a rear end corner part 42in a lower side formed by the rear end part of the bottom wall 33 andthe rear end of the side wall 32 forms a sharp edge 44 in view ofdesign.

Enlarged views of rear end corner parts A1 and A2 on the upper part ofthe front surface panel 3 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are shown in FIG. 4.Enlarged views of rear end corner parts B1 and B2 in the lower part ofthe front surface panel 3 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are shown in FIG. 5. InFIG. 4, reference numerals 45 and 46 designate small protrusions(bosses) for canceling the sharp edges that are referred to as “steps”in the present invention. The boss 45 is formed in a semispherical shapehaving a diameter φ=0.6 mm and the height of the protrusion h=0.3 mm ata position separated by 0.1 mm inside the rear end edge 32 a of theupper wall 32 and the rear end edge 33 a of the side wall 33 thatrespectively form the sharp edge 43. Further, the boss 46 is formed in asemispherical shape having a width of a=0.3 mm, a longitudinal length ofb=2.5 mm, the height of the protrusion h=0.3 mm in a linear form, alower end part of radius R=0.15 so as to be located near inside the rearend edge 34 a of the bottom wall 34 and the rear end edge 33 a of theside wall 33 that form the rear end corner part 42.

For the purpose of design, a very small semispherical boss 45 isprovided inside the sharp edge 45 formed in the rear end corner part 41of the front surface panel 3. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 6, when thefinger touches the sharp edge 43, the finger touches the boss 45 at thesame time. Thus, the force of the finger is exerted on one point X ofthe sharp edge 43 when the boss 45 does not exist is dispersed to thetwo points X and Y of the sharp edge 43 and the boss 45. Further, thereis a cushion due to the existence of the boss 45, so that a risk thatthe finger is injured is greatly decreased. Further, since the boss 45is extremely small as described above, located at the position separatefrom the edge surface of the sharp edge 43 and hardly marked, the bossdoes not give an influence to the design of the casing body 1.

Further, the linear small boss 46 is provided in the rear end cornerpart 42 in the lower side of the front surface panel 3 forming the sharpedge 44. Accordingly, even when the finger touches the sharp edge 46like the above-described case shown in FIG. 6, the force is dispersed tothe two points of the sharp edge 44 and the boss 46 and there is acushion due to the existence of the boss 46. Thus, a risk that thefinger is injured is greatly reduced.

In the casing body 1, when the sharp edges 43 and 44 having the bosses45 and 46 formed inside thereof are inspected by a sharp tester, thesharp edges are not detected. Further, the boss 46 is linear, however,extremely small, located inside the sharp edge 44 and hardly marked. Asa result, the boss 46 hardly gives an influence to the design of thecasing body 1.

The reason why the boss 46 is formed in the linear shape is that themetal mold for forming the bottom part 34 of the front surface panel 3is pulled downward. The form of the boss may be preferably asemispherical like the boss 45.

Since the bosses 45 and 46 protrude on the rear end faces of the frontsurface panel, the bosses can be formed only by fabricating holes orgrooves for forming the bosses on the metal mold that forms the frontsurface panel 3. Thus, the bosses are fabricated advantageously in viewof cost.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The above-described embodiment is applied to the casing of the audiodevice having the sharp edge. However, the present invention is notlimited thereto and may be applied to a casing body having a sharp edgefrom the viewpoint of its design.

1. A casing body having a small boss for canceling a sharp edge in acasing that has the sharp edge in a part with which a user's hand cancome into contact in view of a design of a casing, wherein the smallboss is provided at a position that allows a force concentrated on onepoint of the sharp edge to be directed away in the vicinity of the sharpedge.
 2. The casing body having a small boss for canceling a sharp edgeaccording to claim 1, wherein the casing body is a casing of an audiodevice including a main body and a front surface panel having steps inouter sides from an upper surface and side surfaces of the main body,and the sharp edge is formed on a corner part of a rear end face of thefront surface panel.